


Say Yes

by ApexOnHigh



Category: Foo Fighters, The Police
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Christmas Presents, Established Relationship, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-04
Updated: 2015-01-04
Packaged: 2018-03-05 09:23:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3114710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ApexOnHigh/pseuds/ApexOnHigh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Taylor just wants to find the perfect Christmas gift for Stewart...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Say Yes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sidewinder](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sidewinder/gifts).



> Disclaimer: This story is nothing but fiction! I don't know these people, I made it all up.
> 
> Written as a gift for sidewinder, as part of 2014's A Very Kinky Rockfic Ficmas Fest. The prompt was 'Stewart Copeland,Taylor Hawkins (The Police,Foo Fighters): Silly holiday-themed romantic fluff: shopping for/exchanging Christmas gifts, being home for the holidays…anything along those lines ..' Just a little something to say thanks for all your fic that made me fall in love with this pairing!

Thanksgiving had come and gone and Christmas was almost here, and for once Taylor was having the worst time getting into the holiday spirit. In fact he was miserable. There was one simple reason for his dismay: no matter how hard he tried, he just could not find the right Christmas gift for Stewart.  
  
Everyone else on his gift list? No problem. He'd taken care of them all already, in some cases months ago as soon as he'd found the right present. For his mom and dad, he'd booked a surprise anniversary cruise. They always talked about wanting to do a cruise around the Mediterranean but had never made the plans. Taylor knew they would enjoy that he'd taken care of all the arrangements for them, with of course all of the luxury amenities included.  
  
For his bandmates in the Foos Fighters? They were easy. They always got each other silly gag gifts for Christmas, things to make each other laugh and to try to out-do each other with their bizarreness. This year Taylor had found an assortment of outrageous, colorful Mexican wrestling masks at a flea market in Pasadena. He knew they were perfect gifts--and knowing Dave, he'd probably want them all to wear the masks in the band's next music video.  
  
Sometimes they might get each other something more serious, more personal, too. This year, Taylor had found a painting for Dave at an art festival that he was sure his friend would love. It was a painting of hawk, actually painted on a large bird feather. The artwork reminded Taylor of Dave's feather tattoos, plus the hawk being for Taylor...he knew Dave would love it as a symbol of their bond and their friendship.  
  
But he couldn't find anything nearly as perfect, as meaningful, as special for Stewart, and it was making him crazy! After the many years they'd been together, Taylor was sure he should know exactly what his lover would enjoy as a gift by now. But he was completely stumped trying to come up with something he hadn't done or given to him before.  
  
"What about a book on one of his favorite subjects?" Dave had suggested, when Taylor complained about his problems. "Dude's got a huge library and is always reading all kinds of weird intellectual shit."  
  
"Yeah, but it's hard to know what he HASN'T read already. Every time I've tried to get him a book in the past, it turns out to be something he's already got. Plus it...I don't know...it just doesn't feel personal enough."  
  
"I suggest you prepare a romantic dinner at home," Neil had said, when Taylor had asked their drumming buddy for his advice. "You know Stewart appreciates good food."  
  
"That's the problem. If I cooked it, it wouldn't be good. It would be a disaster. Last time I tried to cook him something fancy we ended up with the fire department at the house."  
  
"Oh. Scratch that idea, then."  
  
It was Les Claypool, one of Stewart's best friends, who finally gave Taylor a real idea. "Why don't you write a song for old Stew? He's a big sap, I bet he'd love it."  
  
"That's...actually not a bad idea," Taylor said. "Maybe I could get some of Stewart's friends to help out and record something together for him."  
  
"Why don't you take over the Grove for the day? Record a big jam for Stewart when he's not at home, surprise him with it at Christmas?"   
  
"Fuck, yeah, that would be great!" Taylor was excited at last. This was totally the kind of thing that would be a complete surprise for Stewart and make his day on Christmas. Taylor could come up with an idea for a fun song, and get a group of their favorite people together to record it in secret. "I think he's going to be away for a few days next week for some kind of music conference or something in New York. Hopefully I have time to get it set up before then."  
  
"Well, give me the date and count me in."  
  
*  
  
And so that was that. Two weeks before Christmas, Taylor ended up at home for four days all by himself, and managed to arrange a secret all-star jam in Stewart's studio, the Sacred Grove. Stewart had cameras and microphones set up all around the studio and Taylor knew enough about how to operate them--or at least, he hoped he did! Everything was controlled by Stewart's studio computer, and Taylor had watched Stewart edit together clips on it enough by now to understand the basic technology involved.  
  
With all of the parties and special events that took place in December, it was always hard to get people together during the holidays, especially at the last minute. Even so, Taylor was happy to see who ended up making it for the special recording once Stewart was out of town. Of course Les was there, and Andy too because he lived nearby. Neil showed up as well, which meant that he and Taylor could man the drum kit and the percussion rack together. And Dave came over, too, bringing Pat with him as a surprise so they actually had three guitarists in the room. That was definitely enough people to have a crazy session--any more and Taylor didn't think they would all fit in the studio!   
  
"Thanks for coming everyone, this is going to be great!" he told them.  
  
"Anything for Stewart," Andy said. "Especially if it means I don't have to buy him a gift now."  
  
Although Taylor had a little riff and a few lyrics written up in advance, they ended up really just improvising and jamming all afternoon until they came up with about four minutes of an actual song for Stewart. Les did a spin on Taylor's original lyrics and turned them into a surreal ode to the mysterious life and times of Klark Kent, Stewart's infamous alter-ego from years past. Dave laid out a scorching guitar solo and Andy ended up adding some lighter notes with one of Stewart's banjos.   
  
"I hope you got that last take, that was killer!" Dave said after they ran it through for the third time. "I don't think I could do that again if I tried."  
  
"I hope I don't ever have to do this again," Andy added.  
  
"Don't worry, it's all in the computer," Taylor assured them. "Now how about some pizza? I'm starving!"   
  
*  
  
Finally Christmas Eve had arrived--and Taylor was back to feeling completely miserable again.  
  
He'd been sure he'd pulled off the perfect Christmas gift. The jam with everyone had been amazing, they'd all had a great time, and he'd had no doubt that Stewart would love it.  
  
But there was only one problem. Taylor had lost the entire recording of the song!  
  
He hadn't wanted Stewart to find it on his studio computer before Christmas, so he thought he'd transfer all the video and audio onto his own Macbook before Stewart got home, and delete the original files.   
  
That had went fine. But Taylor knew he should make a backup copy of it all to be on the safe side. His laptop had been acting wonky for a while, probably from too much traveling around, too much being jostled from one suitcase, one city, to another--and maybe a few close encounters with coffee cups along the way. Taylor kept meaning to do a backup, but with the holidays nearing he got too busy. He never found the time to burn that backup onto a DVD or external drive.  
  
And that's when disaster struck, of course. Wasn't that always the case? One morning, three days before Christmas, he went to turn on his laptop and it wouldn't power up properly. It was just stuck in a log-in loop no matter what he tried with it. In a panic, he rushed to the Mac Store to try to get it fixed, and that's when he got the terrible news.   
  
"Looks like a complete hard drive failure," the Genius Bar technician had told him. "We'll have to install a new one."  
  
"What about everything that's on THAT drive?"  
  
"We can try a recovery, but chances are we may only get some of the data--if anything. There are a lot of bad sectors on this disc. Don't you have a backup to do a full restore?"  
  
"From a few months ago, maybe. But I need something that's on there from last week!"  
  
The technician had shrugged and looked unimpressed. It was clearly a story he'd heard far too many times before. "If you want to pay for a recovery attempt, that's your choice. But we can't guarantee we'll get anything."  
  
Taylor had agreed to try it, but the call from the technician the next day was as he feared: the recovery had failed completely. They could take out and save the old drive for him, in case he wanted to send it out to some recovery specialists, but for now all the data was gone for good.  
  
Taylor had wanted to cry. Why had he been so stupid?! he kept saying to himself. It would have only taken a few minutes to make a backup and now all of his hard work--all of EVERYONE'S hard work--was likely gone for good. There was no time left to do another recording. No way he was even going to ASK everyone who had come to help him the week before to do it all again, even if he could.   
  
He was screwed. Completely screwed, and it was all his own damn fault.  
  
"Here's to us," Stewart raised his glass to toast. They were having dinner at one of their favorite restaurants in Beverly Hills, at their favorite sidewalk table where they could watch the people going by and enjoy the Christmas decorations lighting up the street this time of year. Taylor tried to muster up a smile and look happy even if he felt terrible inside.  
  
"To us."  
  
Stewart clinked his glass and took a sip of his drink, but then his smile started to turn into a look of worry. "Are you feeling okay? You've been quiet all day."  
  
"I'm fine. I'm sorry if I seem distracted."  
  
"Don't be sorry, just tell me what's wrong."   
  
Taylor fidgeted in his chair. He supposed it was better to say something now than to wait until Christmas morning. "I'm just really bummed out tonight."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"I wanted to do something really special this year for Christmas, for you, and I totally fucked it up." Then he told Stewart the whole story, start to finish, from Les' original idea to the day of the recording, everyone who had come out to record it, and then the hard drive crash that had cost him all of their hard work.   
  
"I'm so pissed at myself!" he finished.  
  
"Don't be," Stewart said. "It's the thought that counts, right? Listen, I've done it myself, as much as I'm a self-proclaimed technology junkie. I had a hard drive crash last year and lost that entire day Alex and Geddy came over to jam, remember?"  
  
"Yeah, I remember. And you were pretty pissed at the time, too!"  
  
"I was, but I got over it. It wasn't that important in the grand scheme of things."  
  
"Maybe. But this was important to me." Taylor reached across the table to grab Stewart's hand. He wanted him to understand why this upset him so much. "YOU matter too much to me to not be able to show it properly. That's why I couldn't even figure out a gift for you for so long."  
  
"It's all right, Taylor."  
  
"No, it's not." Taylor was sulking about it and knew he would be for a long time.  
  
Stewart sighed. He patted Taylor's hand with his free one. "Okay, you're right, it's not." Taylor's heart constricted and he looked up at Stewart sheepishly. The older drummer seemed so sad for a moment, Taylor thought his own heart would break. "But, I'll tell you something. There's only one thing I genuinely want from you for Christmas this year, and we still have time for it. I was going to wait until tomorrow to ask, but..."  
  
"What is it, Stew?" Taylor said eagerly. Absolutely anything and he would get it, do it, find it, if they had time. No matter what it might cost.  
  
Stewart sighed dramatically again and shook his head, pulling his hands away. "I don't know...but maybe..." he paused and leaned back, reaching into his jacket pocket. Looking at Taylor the entire time, he then pulled his hand out of his pocket and placed a small box on the table between them.  
  
A jewelry box. There was no mistaking it for anything else.  
  
Taylor's heart stopped for a minute. He looked between the box and Stewart's now amused expression. "Go on, open it."  
  
He did, with shaky hands, afraid that he could be entirely wrong in guessing what it might be. But he wasn't. Inside the box he found a pair of rings. Two beautiful matching bands of hammered gold with their names engraved inside the bands.  
  
"There's only one gift I want from you this year. Say yes."  
  
"Yes." Taylor said it so quickly, Stewart seemed taken aback.  
  
"You know what I'm asking, right?"  
  
"Yes. Yes!" Taylor wasn't even giving Stewart the chance to ask the question properly but he was too excited to care. He jumped up out of his chair, nearly knocking over the waiter who was just then approaching to bring them their appetizers. He gave Stewart a kiss and embrace, so happy now he was almost about to cry. "Of course I'm saying yes. I love you."  
  
"So you'll marry me?"  
  
"YES!"  
  
It was enough of a commotion that several nearby diners seemed to pick up on what was happening and started clapping and going, "Aw!" Who didn't love a marriage proposal that ended on a happy note?   
  
"Seems like champagne might be in order to go with those appetizers, gentlemen?" the waiter asked with a smile.  
  
"I'd say yes to that myself," Stewart agreed. "How about it, Taylor?"  
  
"Champagne for the whole fuckin' place!" Taylor said, still overwhelmed with happiness. He managed to calm down enough finally to get back to his seat and get a better look at the rings.   
  
"I liked the hammered look, because of the way we're both always banging things with our hands," Stewart explained. "A few nicks and dents in the line of duty manning the drums shouldn't stand out that much, you know?"  
  
"They're perfect. Fuck. You're a sneaky bastard, Copeland."  
  
"I know. So I guess now we have to plan a ceremony of some sorts."   
  
"It's going to be epic," Taylor said. "And I think I know the perfect wedding band to hire for day..."


End file.
